Obi202: LAN Mode vs. Bridge Mode

[tempo150101]

(Sorry in advance, this turned out to be long.)

I have a very old Linksys wi-fi router, Model No. WRTU54G-TM.

1. I connected my Obi202 to one of the outgoing wired ports on the router (it was still in LAN mode). Incoming sound perfect; Outgoing sound choppy when there is a heavy internet load. Strike 1.

2. I tried to play with the QoS settings on the WRTU54G-TM, but it throttled everything else down to whatever setting I chose.

3. I then decided to use the LAN capabilities of the Obi202 and put it first in line; I set the WRTU54G-TM to bridge mode.

It works much better, but I opened a bunch of pages (like about 18 of them) just as a test, and the sound still drops out but not as bad.

QUESTIONS:

A. The QoS settings on the Obi 202 are set at the factory default (512); Should I bump it up?

B. I don't understand how all those priority settings work on the Obi QoS page.

C. Would I get better results with a new router specifically designed for voice capabilities? I hate to spend the $80 if I don't have to, but I will if this will get me a better result.

D. If I buy a new router, will the QoS setting throttle everything else?

[CLTGreg]

I have not worked with the 202 and QOS but maybe I can help. First, is your wireless traffic heavy? It seems that the router is built to either do better QoS for wireless or wired by a number of tricks such as giving priority to an ethernet port. If you assigned the port that the Obi is plugged into then you should get better QoS for wired.

That is shown here: http://setuprouter.com/router/linksys/wrtu54g-tm/qos-7253-large.htm

You can't really (effectively) throttle inbound traffic and it sounds like your bottleneck is up which is often more limited than down.

In addition to what more real world you get from others, I'd test by turning EVERYTHING off that is wireless and see if there is a difference.

And it looks like the "TM" isn't evil but who knows.

For my deployment I am going to use Tomato on a router that is compatible with yours. This can get very granular and if you have to use a cable modem as the final jump to the outside, you should see better results on both wired and wireless. I already have the router locked and loaded I just need to introduce a new subnet.

Tomato is pretty technical but if you are operating with an Obi you should be ready for it. Backup the config in the Linksys if you can or find a way to flash it back if something goes wrong. You can always pick up something compatible if something goes wrong. I'm using a couple of Asus routers though I don't know where the second one is.

I'll try to get this done over the weekend so I can share real world advise. I have 750gb of data that I'm uploading to Onedrive and everything pukes on that including Netflix which is mostly down.

If you're not familiar with Tomato here are notes for your specific router: https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Tomato_Firmware/Supported_Devices#Linksys_WRT54G-TM

Note that the next models are Asus which you can pick up from Amazon. The WRT54G is stuff of legends. You have a (pink) version (so to speak) but at least you have the "WRT54G".